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The National Unity Youth Fellowship (NUYF) wasn’t just about workshops and theoretical learning.

The participants were asked to propose actual projects that would promote unity among young people, and the two best projects were given grants of RM7,000 each to get started.

Here’s a quick look at the two winning project ideas.

The Malaysian Story

This video project seeks to encourage young Malaysians to upload videos of themselves telling their own “Malaysian stories”.

According to project leader Mable Leong, 27, the strategic objective of this programme is to cultivate a deeper sense of mutual understanding and unity among Malaysians in order to reduce socio-economic stereotyping.

“By using this platform to share stories across Malaysia, we can kickstart a sharing culture centred around Malaysian stories which everyone can relate to,” she said.

Muhammad Azizul, who was part of the team that came up with the idea, said they plan to set up a social media channel for the project and its videos, and allow young Malaysians to take control of it. “We will give access to whoever wants to run it,” he said.

The group is expected to upload their pioneer videos on facebook in August.

Exploring diversity, celebrating unity

This Perlis-based project will involve two events – the Perlis Unity Tour, and a Unity Night.

NUYF fellow Ang Wei Chern, 26, started working on the idea immediately after he was selected for the fellowship, and he will be executing it with the help of Sekolah Pemikir Jalanan, a think tank based in Perlis and the Department of National Unity and Integration (Jabatan Perpaduan Negara dan Integrasi Nasional) of Perlis.

The reason he decided to create a programme specific to his hometown of Perlis is because he believes there’s a lack of “unity projects” for students in the northern states to take part in.

The Unity Tour, scheduled to be held in August, will see 15 students from the Perlis Matriculation College visiting various communities and places of worship throughout the state.

In October, Ang will organise a Unity Night which will be open to the public.

There will be cultural performances, a unity forum and the appointment of the 15 Unity Tour students as “Ambassadors of Unity”.